Can anyone explain the vinyl renaissance?

[Angsty]

As I sit here listening to the second side of my latest Blue Note Tone Poet pressing, I can simply say that I enjoy it. I’m not claiming it’s better than digital, but I like what I’m hearing. Once I found a cartridge and a phonostage that worked well for me, I just sit back and smile when I play a well-mastered LP.

It doesn’t have to be technically better than digital for me to derive possibly more enjoyment from it. If you can’t simply enjoy the music you’re hearing and the process you’re using to hear it, you’re doing something wrong.

 

[Soandso]

I think new entrants to the vinyl renaissance have been fading in numbers - it's an expensive hobby to start from nothing. The era of commonly finding $1 used records in good condition is long past. And neophytes inspecting used records probably never saw this back of my old Columbia Records album cover's exhortation to "safeguard your record" by not using "a needle beyond it's recommended expectancy."

 

[deniall83]

I love vinyl but I’m slowly becoming tired of it. New prices are insane in Australia, so I’ve gone back to CD’s. I picked up 5 for $10 at the thrift shop the other day. The new George Michael Older reissue is $70 here. I just got an original CD for $5. I have all the music I could ever want on a hard drive and Roon access but I don’t like flicking through my phone for music and streaming in general isn’t very enjoyable to me. I prefer to have a considered collection of physical media to choose from and play start to finish. Obviously I know this isn’t to everyone’s taste and that’s fine.

 

[EJ3]

I have all the music I could ever want on a hard drive and Roon access but don’t like I flicking through my phone for music and streaming in general isn’t very enjoyable to me. I prefer to have a considered collection of physical media to choose from and play start to finish. Obviously I know this isn’t to everyone’s taste and that’s fine.

I want to put my music on an SSD but haven't got setup the so I can do that the way I want yet (& it will be likely another year, as I am currently renovating a home for my wife & I to live in).
"don’t like I flicking through my phone for music and streaming in general isn’t very enjoyable to me." Me either, so I don't. (I only use my phone for talking [rarely], texting {even more rarely} and I am not yet set-up with internet at the renovation home).
I prefer to have a considered collection of physical media to choose from and play start to finish. So that's what I have. Vinyl, cassette & Reel to Reel. Thousands of things waiting on the set up to become digital media on a dedicated SSD setup.
Glad I am not the only one that wants to physically own my media. It makes a big difference to me when I am on a boat for 4 months or out of any signal range (at my "cabin" on a wild river) to have my own media with me. I spend more time out of any signal range (because being in those places is where I like to be) than I do in range of a signal).

 

[Puddingbuks]

I love vinyl but I’m slowly becoming tired of it. New prices are insane in Australia, so I’ve gone back to CD’s. I picked up 5 for $10 at the thrift shop the other day. The new George Michael Older reissue is $70 here. I just got an original CD for $5. I have all the music I could ever want on a hard drive and Roon access but I don’t like flicking through my phone for music and streaming in general isn’t very enjoyable to me. I prefer to have a considered collection of physical media to choose from and play start to finish. Obviously I know this isn’t to everyone’s taste and that’s fine.

 

[Angsty]

I love vinyl but I’m slowly becoming tired of it. New prices are insane in Australia, so I’ve gone back to CD’s. I picked up 5 for $10 at the thrift shop the other day. The new George Michael Older reissue is $70 here. I just got an original CD for $5. I have all the music I could ever want on a hard drive and Roon access but I don’t like flicking through my phone for music and streaming in general isn’t very enjoyable to me. I prefer to have a considered collection of physical media to choose from and play start to finish. Obviously I know this isn’t to everyone’s taste and that’s fine.

Pricing for new pressings has gotten out of hand and I've cut back on both new and used purchases due to price inflation. I, too, am buying more CDs to acquire some music that costs too much on vinyl.

 

[MakeMineVinyl]

Pricing for new pressings has gotten out of hand and I've cut back on both new and used purchases due to price inflation. I, too, am buying more CDs to acquire some music that costs too much on vinyl.

Factor in inflation from the 1960s to now, and the prices for vinyl are similar, and the quality is better now.

 

[MattHooper]

By all accounts the vinyl boom is still going gangbusters in terms of demand.

But if anything puts a dent in the momentum it's going to be the ever crazier pricing! Some industries are masters at cooking the goose that laid their golden egg. I'm frankly amazed that vinyl has continued to expand in demand seemingly despite the ever higher pricing.

 

[levimax]

Pricing for new pressings has gotten out of hand and I've cut back on both new and used purchases due to price inflation. I, too, am buying more CDs to acquire some music that costs too much on vinyl.

Yea I am back to buying mostly old CD's. I used to enjoy picking up used original pressings of my old favorite LP's for under $10 but those days are over. With current pricing it is too risky to buy used and new LP's never made sense to me and at current prices make even less sense. I wonder if the price spike is going to kill off the "renaissance"?

​

 

[Soandso]

Factor in inflation from the 1960s to now, and the prices for vinyl are similar, and the quality is better now.

Adding inflation to 1960s record prices calculated as comparable to current vinyl prices to evaluate the hobby's logic overlooks a significant difference. Back in the 1950s & 1960s we coughed up the money for records because had no other way to get the music we wanted to listen to uninterrupted on demand; the alternative was commercial radio.

I still regularly listen to a vinyl record album and enjoy even those in my old collection with audible defects - surprisingly many have none despite being made over 50 years ago. But I wouldn't spend the equivalent money now to create such a large collection because I could stream an even greater number of entire albums by the same artists at a better price point - a year's streaming paid in advance is less than US$100 for Deezer.

Sometimes it's even quicker for me to get a record playing than set up some music streaming. But after one album (which can be more than just 2 sides) I invariably stop, clean the stylus and am ritually content ... until next time get a hankering (nostalgia) to hear a certain album again.

 

[MattHooper]

I live near downtown where there are tons of record shops. There's a couple on the strip just around the corner from my house. One is new and opened up
last summer. I passed by today and continue to be amazed how busy it is. They have free records in stacks outside on the sidewalk (second-hand records they figure they wouldn't sell) and people young and old are continually picking through those, and the shop itself is often quite busy. It seems even busier than last summer.

 

[atmasphere]

I wasn't there when it was cut. Cut was about 6 days old when I did the needle drop. How are you addressing tangentiality and cut pressure?

Understandable that you trust your own experience, but as you won't provide any data your experience is anecdotal to everyone else. Run a spiral on an off-cut and post it.

Even if I did, one issue is knowing whether what I was presenting was actually what I said it was so even with a cut it remains a matter of anecdote.

About 3 years ago Apollodisc burned to the ground. They supplied 80% of the world's lacquers; the other 20% (now 100%...) are supplied by a Japanese guy that is in his 80s and works out of his garage. You have to be on his good side to get shipments. We gradually used up our stock; a few months ago I was approached by a firm in California who was interested in our lathe and sensing that being able to use it at all was getting tricky we made a deal. It took a while to close on it but at this point I no longer have a lathe. I'm of mixed feelings on the matter; on the one hand it was lovely to cut LPs and was eager to see what class D amplification could bring to the table since they are so much more reliable than the stock cutter amps and also lower distortion. On the other hand getting a good price on the lathe at a time when its use might dwindle to nothing was also attractive. One of the items of negotiation was the lacquers themselves which is why I was reticent to cut a groove on any one of them just to satisfy some online chat.

When the stylus is replaced in the cutter head, the head has to be removed; after installation the head re-installed. Its trickier than it sounds, even though you might have everything marked you still have to play with it. Things like tangentiality, cut pressure and so on all affect the noise you can achieve in the groove. IME if you can hear the noise of the groove you've not done your job setting up the cutter prior. I have a theory that with many engineers once they get it 'good enough' they stop with the optimization process, having bigger fish to fry. At this point sans lathe that's all I can say on the matter.

Since the sale I've been approached a couple of other times by other firms looking to see if we could do jobs for them. Every pressing house in the US is busy and backordered and there are more of them now than 10 years ago...

 

[Angsty]

Why are lacquers so hard to produce?

 

[Newman]

The new George Michael Older reissue is $70 here.

That would be equivalent to $10 in 1970. New LPs in those days were closer to half that.

 

[EJ3]

Factor in inflation from the 1960s to now, and the prices for vinyl are similar, and the quality is better now.

Yes, as a percentage, it's back to what I could afford when I was 13.

 

[MakeMineVinyl]

Yes, as a percentage, it's back to what I could afford when I was 13.

The record I just bought (Four!) today costs $29.95 and the 180 gram pressing is flawless. The original record would cost $2.99 in 1960 and the vinyl would almost certainly be inferior quality and noisier. Records back in the 70s when I was buying heavily were usually horrible quality, and even Telarc pressing weren't as good as good pressings now. That's why I believe that now is really the Golden Age of vinyl since quality is emphasized instead of mass production.

 

[Alisterkoran]

Fascinating thread. Unlike many I never got rid of my original vinyl purchases (I bought my first LP in 1978). I now have thousands of LPs. Am I a vinyl fan? No. I'm into music and quite format agnostic. I still sometimes play cassettes even, the top 40 compilation one's I made - Folk these days don't realise or even understand the hours we used to spend with our fingers hovering over the pause key!

Some things sound better on vinyl, some on CD. Depends on the mastering, compression, etc. I find a lot of Youtube music is heavilly compressed and the sound quality is unsuitable for serious listening.

These days my Vinyl purchases are restricted to 'special' albums (special to me!).

Yes, vinyl has issues (like having to keep them clean, getting up the change the side etc), but some albums just sound better on Vinyl. For convenience and ease of use though, CD wins hands down. As for cover art and linear notes etc, the larger format LP wins.

Ali.

 

[Snoopy]

I'm streaming only (roon). Only few CDs that I own are not on streaming services so I ripped them.

I could see myself getting a turntable and a bunch of LPs just for fun and the collectors stuff.

But LP prices for something worth collecting are a bit crazy. I'm not going to spend 30-50€ for one LP. For sound quality that is basically on par with Spotify at best.

I would rather have a comeback of SACD at the price of normal CDs. But same thing there.. not going to spend 25-45€ for a used SACD.

 

[atmasphere]

Why are lacquers so hard to produce?

First you start with a machined aluminum disk built to some specific dimensions. Then it has to be coated with some precision with the very flammable lacquer from which it gets its name. Now do it for only $35-$40 each in quantities of one. It should tell you something that the plant making them in the US burned to the ground; lacquer burns quite fiercely. I imagine (without any real proof) that getting a permit or the like to build or renovate a place to do this sort of thing might be a trick in many states.

 

[Jaxjax]

In my main rig there is no way, unless a very good needle drop is to be found can digital compete with certain pressings I have simply because they are not available. I use Amazon for my streaming & have stored CD's that never come out. My viny/ digital time is split 50-50. My Feickert/ Grado Sonata 3 definitely blows away any analog rig I've had before & I don't need high $ phono pre's to get there. 1 thing is for sure.. some of the pressings coming from AS are over the top good & very hard for digital to compete with on certain pressings. This is what I hear & actually not even close on some